Some of the residents of Pineview Road in West Nyack stand at the private railroad crossing that is the only way into their neighborhood. The freight rail line CSX wants to shut the crossing, the site of four accidents since 2010. But the closure would leave the dozen Pineview families with no way in or out. Pictured from right: Jean Buzzell, Diane Fitzsimons, Bart Fitzsimons, Lou Bimbo, Andy Valdez, Susanne Madden, Vinny Buzzell, and Joe Buzzell.(Photo: Peter D. Kramer/The Journal News)Buy Photo

WEST NYACK - Bart Fitzsimons hears freight trains night and day as they rumble along his Pineview Road neighborhood, less than a mile south of the Palisades Center Mall.

The trains are a way of life on Pineview, a private gravel road just off Western Highway. In fact, the only way in and out of the neighborhood — except for cutting through a car dealership parking lot, if the gate's not locked — is over a private rail crossing.

And that rail crossing lies at the heart of a complicated tug-of-war involving one of Rockland's highest-profile developers, the town of Clarkstown, CSX railroad and a dozen homeowners whose neighborhood hangs in the balance.

But Bart and Diane Fitzsimons have an extra burden each time they approach the crossing: It’s a constant reminder that 10 summers ago their son Ryan was struck and killed by a train on these tracks.

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Ray LeVier and Bart Fitzsimons stand next to the private railroad crossing that lead to their neighborhood on Pineview Road in West Nyack, July 16, 2018. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

Now, Fitzsimons and his Pineview neighbors face a future even more uncertain than encountering disabled trains: CSX has said it wants to permanently eliminate vehicle traffic at the Pineview crossing, cutting access to Western Highway.

The rail company said it is seeking an alternate access to the neighborhood, and that there is no timeline for the crossing’s closure. But the dozen Pineview families on 16 acres along the Hackensack River worry that the alternate access will take them far from Western Highway, access they are guaranteed in their deeds.

Enter Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann, whose father lived as a boy on Pineview. Hoehmann has stepped in to broker some path forward in what he stressed is an unofficial capacity, as the road does not belong to the town.

"It’s a private road that comes in from Western Highway, so the town doesn’t have any formal role," he said. "If this was a town road, the town would be obligated to upgrade it and just do what we need to do to fix it. We have no role in it other than trying to mitigate it and talk with different property owners."

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Bart Fitzsimons stands next to the private railroad crossing that leads to his neighborhood on Pineview Road in West Nyack, July 16, 2018. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

'He just didn't hear the train'

The families that put down roots on Pineview mark their time here in decades. One old-timer has been here longer than the 63-year-old Bart Fitzsimons has been alive.

And all that time, there have been trains. And all that time, there has only been one way into Pineview Road, up a short hill from Western Highway and over railroad tracks that once belonged to Conrail and now belong to CSX.

There are no railroad gates at Pineview, no flashing lights, just a stop sign and a sign below that reads “Private RR Crossing – Look.” There’s also a simple crossbuck indicating a rail crossing.

At the foot of the crossbuck is a different sort of reminder: a burgundy cemetery light to remember Ryan Fitzsimons, who was 22 when he was struck and killed by a CSX train on July 6, 2008.

"It was a tragic accident," Fitzsimons said. "It wasn't the rail engineer's fault. He just went out, apparently he didn't take the earbuds out and he was walking down the tracks, taking a shortcut across and over to Western Highway. He just didn't hear the train."

They have thought about moving from the home where Diane has lived for 43 years and Bart for 36. Their second son, Patrick, is 25 years old.

"This is our home," Fitzsimons said. "I thought about it long and hard. And we put a lot into the place."

Like going back in time

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Ray LeVier stands next to the Hackensack River in the back of his home on Pineview Road in West Nyack, July 16, 2018.(Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

Life on Pineview is still a Rockland County time machine, the way life in the county used to be. Massive evergreens hug close to the narrow, gravel roadway. There are no street lights, no sewers, no pavement. When it snows, Pineview Road is on its own.

Neighbor Ray LeVier, who owns two acres at the end of the road, has a plow and makes a couple of passes when needed.

“When I first came up here, I couldn’t believe it,” Fitzsimons said. “There was this canopy, this bower of pine trees. It was just beautiful. And you weren’t that far from the city or from the attractions in Rockland County, wherever you wanted to go.”

The neighborhood has changed little, but there have been changes along its edges.

Fitzsimons said that 36 years ago, when Conrail had the rail line, eight trains might have traveled through. Today, close to 20 trains, some hauling up to 160 cars, come though.

The ownership of the industrial property at the foot of Pineview Road has changed, too.

Once owned by Chromalloy, it's now the property of John Magee, one of the county's highest-profile developers, whose Bradley Corporate Park sits just south of the crossing, in Blauvelt, part of neighboring Orangetown.

For years, Magee has leased the space, and its massive parking lot, to a Queens auto dealer, which stores and preps cars for sale. The parking lot connects to Bradley Corporate Park, and would give train-blocked Pineview residents a way out of the neighborhood. The problem is that the car dealer locks the gate at night, cutting off the only other way out.

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Aerial images of the area near Pineview Road in West Nyack on Tuesday, July 17, 2018.(Photo: John Meore & Ricky Flores/The Journal News)

The car storage has changed the nature of traffic at the crossing. The property is now buzzing with cars — and car carriers — moving in and out. And the danger factor has risen at the crossing.

At 6:55 p.m., on Dec. 6, 2013, a car carrier was struck by an eastbound CSX train going 36 mph, ejecting the trucker, Esad Sadikovic, from the cab of the truck, which burst into flames. Sadikovic sustained several fractures, including a broken clavicle.

The train engineer and his assistant saw the truck on the tracks and blew the horn as a warning, Clarkstown Police Sgt. Glenn Cummings said at the scene.

In the past 8 years, there have been three other accidents at the crossing.

(The Fitzsimons were nearly late to the meeting about the railroad crossing because a car carrier was unloading cars and blocked the crossing for 30 minutes.)

Hoehmann stressed that his role, in calling the meeting and continuing the conversation, is merely as a facilitator. At issue, Hoehmann said, is the topography of the site, up that short hill from Western Highway.

"The difficulty is that based on the trajectory of the road — because it’s kind of a hill that goes up and there’s a bend when you go across the train tracks — it doesn’t meet any of the standards for a railroad crossing."

Hoehmann said he has received no official word from CSX about wanting to close the crossing.

"They would really like to see the crossing addressed," he said. "What they mean by that is either closed or some type of alternative worked out. And that’s what they’ve said to the neighbors, but they haven’t said it formally to the neighbors or the town."

CSX offered the following statement, through media relations manager Laura Phelps: “CSX has been working very closely with local elected officials as they work to develop a viable plan for alternate access to the homes and businesses on Pineview Road.

"The safety of the neighboring community is CSX’s greatest concern, and we’re committed to working with local officials on a resolution. At this time, there is no projected timeline for the closure of this crossing.”

Susan Meyer, the spokeswoman for the Rockland County Planning Department, said her agency was asked to observe Hoehmann's meeting, under the auspices of the county's “quiet-zone” project.

That project — which will cost upwards of $7 million — will bring upgrades to crossings from Orangetown to Haverstraw. It will double the number of gates, creating “a four quadrant system” to prevent vehicles from trying to skirt gates to beat the train.

With the crossings fortified, it would be possible for trains to roll through Rockland without using their horns, except in emergencies, Meyer said.

The quiet zone project won't include Pineview, said county spokesman John Lyon, because the future of that crossing is uncertain.

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Businesses are pictured adjacent to the CSX rails, near Pineview Road in West Nyack, July 16, 2018. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

The options

Hoehmann said he understands what's at stake.

"The difficulty is you essentially have 13 houses on Pineview that are landlocked," he said. "If you close that crossing essentially the only way they can really get in and out would probably be the Bradley Corporate Park."

Ask Fitzsimons and his neighbors what remedy they'd like to see and the answer is clear: Either keep the crossing open or build a tunnel under the tracks that maintains access to Western Highway, a right-of-way granted to them in their deeds.

Lou Bimbo, who has been on Pineview 43 years, says there's plenty of room to put a single-lane tunnel beneath the tracks to give access to the neighborhood.

Hoehmann said his planners are looking at several options.

One would go south, through the fenced parking lot on the Magee property and create a road that would then hook up with Bradley Corporate Park and, eventually, Route 303 in Blauvelt, which is in Orangetown.

The downside would be that residents — and emergency vehicles — would have to take the long way into the neighborhood, from Route 303, possibly adding 3 miles to the first-responders' trip.

“I had John Magee in my office on a number of different issues, one of which was Pineview," Hoehmann said. "He's open to the potential of some type of access, but he's got some things he's looking at the town to potentially support in exchange that would enable him to be able to reclaim some of the wetland area over there. So that he can then afford emergency access through his property."

Calls to Magee and his attorney were not returned.

A second option, Hoehmann said, would be to connect to Western Highway where the private road currently is, but to build a road north along the tracks and tuck under the tracks at a trestle north of the current crossing.

The downside there would be getting approval to build in a flood plain as there’s a risk of flooding from the Hackensack River. Prolonged rain could pin residents on Pineview for longer than a disabled train would.

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Some of the residents of Pineview Road in West Nyack stand at the private railroad crossing that is the only way into their neighborhood. The freight rail line CSX wants to shut the crossing, the site of four accidents since 2010. But the closure would leave the dozen Pineview families with no way in or out. Pictured from right: Jean Buzzell, Diane Fitzsimons, Bart Fitzsimons, Lou Bimbo, Andy Valdez, Susanne Madden, Vinny Buzzell, and Joe Buzzell.(Photo: Peter D. Kramer/The Journal News)

Legal recourse

If the issue is forced, he said, the residents have legal recourse through their title companies, which established a right-of-way to Western Highway in their deeds.

"But it's a safety issue. We've had numerous incidents at that crossing and it's only a matter of time potentially before there's a significant issue there," Hoehmann said. "So we're doing our best to work with the residents with Mr. Magee and the town to come up with another option."

Hoehmann is heading to Washington to meet with Federal Railroad Administration officials and Congresswoman Nita Lowey this month. Pineview Road will be discussed.

"It can't be good for the residents to worry about crawling under a train to get to a family funeral or a wedding or if a train is just going to stop there for some period of time," he said. "And I understand the issues that CSX is trying to resolve and I understand what the residents are trying to resolve."